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Yar, you be here: Julia > Customer Reviews Julia Customer Reviews (1 - 3 of 3 Reviews)A Story of Two Friends
This story traces the friendship of writer Lillian Hellmann and her friend Julia, from their times together as adolescents to their very different lives as adults. Jane Fonda is somewhat one-note as Hellmann, struggling to get her first play finished, feeling overshadowed by her lover, the great Dashiell Hammett, well played by Jason Robards. She also tries to keep contact with Julia, played by a glowing Vanessa Redgrave, as Julia becomes more and more mired in the tumultuous politics of 1930's Europe. Eventually, Fonda herself gets pulled into the political upheaval as she tries to help her friend out. There are a number of reasons why I liked the film. The production team does an excellent job of recreating the time period, giving the viewer a real sense of what it would have been like. I enjoyed the insight it gives to the writer's process and the frustrations that go with it. The "adventure" that Fonda goes on to get money to her friend is well played out dramatically, and their meeting is filled with unspoken words, a credit to the screenplay, the actresses, and the fine direction by veteran Fred Zinneman. I don't know how much of the story would prove to be true, but I think there are many truths in it. Jane Fonda Comes of Age
Too bad this one's out of stock, but worse was that the poltical backlash Vanessa Redgrave's Best Supporting Actress acceptance speech detracted from the film's importance. Despite that, "Julia" may well be the best work in Redgrave's and Jane Fonda's impressive bodies of work. For the latter, the film launched the socially-themed works that followed, and Fonda may well have come of age in this one. She plays writer Lillian Hellman to Redgrave's title character, an upper-class rich kid who grows into social activist and lays her life on the line to smuggle condemned Jews from the death camps of Hitler's Third Reich. Redgrave is superlative, and Fonda is rivting as Julia's childhood friend who gradually comes to recognize the evil unleashed by man on man at the time. As Julia's long-time lover, Dashell Hammitt, the late Jason Robards nailed down one of his back-to-back Supporting Actor Oscars ("All the President's Men" was the other), and the raw talent of the Fonda-Redgrave-Robards package helps make "Julia" one of Fonda's best works. The importance of the film's subject matter is so overwhelming that it easily displaces the Vietnam-related controvery that dogged (and may still) Fonda through the '70s and the unpopular words Redgrave used in her Oscar acceptance speech (she was literally booed off the stage). Far from a "chick flic," "Julia" is an important film that delves into but one relam in the darkest of human history, and it's earned a lofty spot among films of its genre. Great Movie
Its a great movie.The actors are great. The best performance came from Maximilian Schell as "Johann",he gave a stunning portrayal of a man with ideals in the Naziregime.Strong Turns also by Jane Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave.For me as a german are this kind of films very important. PS.
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